Helen Foxhall Forbes

Helen studied Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge and Theology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg-im-Breisgau; she has held academic posts at Cambridge, Leicester and Exeter and she is currently a lecturer in early medieval history at Durham University. She works on the early middle ages and her research focuses on two main areas: 1) intellectual pursuits including theology, science, history of ideas, religious and intellectual culture, and manuscript production; 2) social history, landscapes, and communications. These are not entirely separate and sometimes can be fruitfully combined, as in her book published by Ashgate in 2013, Heaven and Earth in Anglo-Saxon England: theology and society in an age of faith. She is currently writing a book on purgatory in northwestern Europe in the early middle ages and pursuing research interests in the social history of early medieval southern Italy, particularly Calabria and Basilicata.